night visions
by bumblebee jars
Summary: "In darkness, we find the ending." Because death was the beginning for her. [or, the second life of Bianca di Angelo. au.]
1. Chapter 1

**[A/N]** long a/n; either skip or prepare yourselves. this is a new leanca fic, except it's nothing like day of the jewel garden. I have yet to read House of Hades (it's for Christmas), so any references (except any relating to nico) are unintentional. please refrain from any spoilers in the reviews, should you choose to leave one (which I hope you do).

consider this a rewrite of _day of the jewel garden_, which I reread a day ago and wondered how I ever thought that was good. I do appreciate the 78 reviews, though. enjoy _night visions_, everyone.

love, theia.

ps. **unbeta'd**. if you want to be the beta for this, please PM me. thanks, yo.

* * *

**[1]: a dream so big and loud**

* * *

_i had a dream so big and loud_

_i jumped so high i touched the clouds_

* * *

**B**ianca opens her eyes to see the ceiling of Hades's cabin shaking. Everything is trembling in the room. Disoriented, she takes a moment to stare at her half-full glass of water—why is that shaking?—and sits up when she realizes Nico's bed is empty and made.

_He had the watch_, a part of her whispers, and someone outside her cabin screams. The scream's cut off by a savage growl, and Bianca's stomach heaves at the noise. As she wakes up fully, she can hear sounds of battle begin to tune in: clashing of metal on metal, animalistic growls, shouts from demigods outside.

As she's processing, a pebble from the ceiling hits her head and lands on the silver duvet. _I have to get out of here_, she thinks, and rushes out of bed. She grabs her quiver of arrows and her bow and runs out to see a hellhound bent over a halfblood. She shoots an arrow through its maw and gags when she sees the blank, unblinking eyes of Lacey staring up at the sky.

_She was just a kid_, she thinks. Someone screams and she whirls, refusing to allow herself to dwell on Lacey's death. She shoots an arrow into a—something that looks like it's made out of storm clouds—but it goes right through it. What is going on?

She ducks behind a tree and blinks when she feels a raindrop hit her cheek. _Was that—rain? But it never rains in Camp Half-Blood._

She steps forward and looks up at the sky, then gasps. The invisible border is very visible now—it looks like burning paper. The edges are slowly peeling away, rimmed in scarlet, and she can smell smoke in the air. When she glances away from the sky, the Demeter cabin's roof is on fire, and blood seems to stain the grass scarlet.

Then she hears a groaning noise and turns around. The Hades cabin gives a final shudder, then collapses in on itself. Bianca watches the macabre scene, illuminated by the firelight and the scarlet edges of the dissolving border, too horrified to move.

Then, one by one, each cabin shudders and falls, until all that's left is Zeus's cabin. She watches, rooted to the ground, as the earth seems to shake harder to topple the cabin. Then, as if she's in a slow-motion part of the film, parts of the roof begin to crumble up inside until the roof caves in.

_We're under attack_, a part of her realizes, but she can't register that until she remembers that Nico's missing. _I have to find him_, she thinks, and then she turns around to see a hellhound hurtling toward her.

_Wake up wake up wake_ up—

* * *

**A**ndie jerks awake from her nightmare and lies in her bed, clutching her covers to her as if the blankets would shield her from the monsters that plague her nightmares. Her heart pounds in a dizzying rush of fear, and none of her deep breaths (_like Mom told me to, just like that_) help slow the erratic drumbeat down.

She slips out of bed and brings her teddy and her blanket with her as she goes downstairs. Everything is dark and scary, so she lights one of Mom's candles—one of the nice-smelling ones, just like Christmas cookies—and takes it with her to the TV room, where she selects a Scooby Doo DVD and pops it into the player.

She puts the volume on one tick above mute, but the house groans above her and she wraps the blanket around herself tighter. A minute later, her dad appears and sits next to her.

"Nightmares?" he guesses, his green eyes bleary and his smile knowing. Andie nods and buries her face in his side, wrapping her arms around him.

"They're scary," she whispers, and a thought says, _you're twelve, you're too old to be hugging Dad_, but she ignores that and clutches him tighter.

"Want to talk about it?"

Already, details of the dream are fading, but she remembers the paralyzing fear that crippled her in her dream. "She—I—I was at this place with fancy houses—cabins, almost—and there were monsters killing people." At that, she sniffles and squeezes her eyes shut. "I don't like the dark, dad."

"I know, sweetheart. I don't, either."

"Do you have nightmares?" Andie asks, looking up at him even though her eyes are watering. Dad's seen Mom cry, so he can handle her, right?

"Yes, I do." He kisses her forehead and smiles. "They're about monsters, too. Everyone has scary dreams sometimes."

Andie hugs him again and glances back at the TV. "Can I watch Scooby Doo?"

He nods his consent, and carries her to bed when she dozes off. He goes back to bed, even though he's too awake to try to sleep some more. Even though he does his best to quiet, Annabeth opens one gray eye and murmurs, "More dreams?"

"Yeah. She saw Camp Half-Blood."

This wakes her up and she pushes herself to one elbow. "How do you know?"

"She saw the cabins and hellhounds—from a demigod's view."

"What was she doing at Camp Half-blood?" Annabeth rolls onto her side to face him and props her head underneath an arm. Percy shakes his head and kisses her forehead. "More importantly, why was she the demigod and not observing from the outside? That's not how our dreams work."

"No idea, but she's safe with us. We'll protect her, Annabeth," he says, grabbing her hand. "You know we will."

* * *

**S**he's on a field trip with her class—a hike for science class to learn about gravity and Newton's Laws—when she sees the wolf. It's silver-white, and beautiful, and gazes at her with bright amber eyes. Everyone sees it, too, and Mrs. Higgens hushes them. "Deer are very shy," she tells the class, pushing her bifocals up her nose. "Nobody try to scare it."

Andrea blinks at Mrs. Higgens, wondering how a white wolf could _possibly_ be mistaken for a deer, but she keeps her mouth shut. Amy and those girls already think she's a weirdo, but Nathan doesn't, and there's no way she's making herself look crazy in front of Nathan.

The wolf stares at her a while and then stalks away, and the class murmurs its appreciation of the deer's grace while bounding away. Then they move on with their hike, but a gaze pierces through Andie's skull that makes the hairs on her neck stand up. She turns around, unable to help her curiosity.

The wolf is still there, its head cocked and its amber eyes shining. Light dapples the ground and leaves spots of yellow on its fur. They stare at each other until a deep horn rips through the air—it scares her nearly out of her skin—and the wolf stalks away. After a moment, it stops dead and looks over its shoulder, staring right at her.

A second horn blast makes her turn around to see the class is getting farther and farther away. With one last look at the wolf, which is still staring at her, she sprints away, her chest tight and her heartbeat hammering behind her ribs. Shy, sweet David Jansen is the only one who notices her absence, and he lingers until she catches up with him. "Why'd you stay behind?"

Andie shrugs, unable to come up with a good excuse. David watches her through blue eyes hidden behind glasses, and she looks at the sky to avoid his gaze. "Don't worry about it, okay?" she finally says, and he leaves her alone after that.

In the silence, she wonders why no one else heard the horn.

* * *

**A**ndrea arrives home to see Kat sitting next to her mother and Uncle Jason. Next to Uncle Jason is her cousin Sara, who's one year older than Andie and never lets her forget it. Sara's pretty, with olive skin and feathery brown hair and cinnamon eyes, but she behaves just like Amy does at school. Andie doesn't like her on days she acts like Amy.

Uncle Jason is sitting at the table with Mom, and Caleb is playing on his console, as usual. Caleb looks much more like Aunt Reyna and Uncle Jason than Sara, what with his black hair and electric blue eyes, but she never mentions that. The one time Andie asked Sara if she was adopted, Sara screamed at her until Uncle Jason forced her to sit in their car.

After that, she'd never mustered the courage to ask Aunt Reyna or Uncle Jason the truth about Sara's parentage, and Caleb had rolled his eyes at her when she'd tried to bring it up with him.

Ignoring both her cousins, she greets Uncle Jason, Mom and Kat, and goes to get some chocolate milk. When Mom asks her how school went, she pauses and wonders if she should tell her about the wolf. "We saw some deer," she offers, and her mother smiles at her.

"Oh?"

"Well, my classmates did," she amends, guilty at lying to her mother. "I saw a wolf, but they thought it was a deer. It was really weird."

"Maybe you're the weird one," Sara offers, but she doesn't notice the way Mom and Uncle Jason's faces cloud over.

"What did the wolf look like?" Uncle Jason asks, and Andie bites her lip.

"It was white, and it had yellow eyes. It looked like it wanted me to follow it, but I didn't."

Her mother tucks a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and smiles, but her smile is strained. She stands up, engulfs her daughter in a hug, and says, "You're such a smart girl, Andie. I'm proud of you."

Andie waits until her mother releases her to pour another glass of chocolate milk and gulp it down, though she can't stop the pride blooming inside.

* * *

**T**hat night, Annabeth curls her fingers resting on Percy's chest and whispers, "Andie saw a Hunting wolf."

Percy tenses, and the fingers resting on her back tighten their grip. "What? Was there a monster attack?"

"No. Jason IM'd Phoebe and she said none of the wolves went missing, though they were in the area. Apparently there's some news from Canadian demigods—something going on with a large pack led by a wolf as big as a horse."

Percy meets her eyes. They'd moved to North Dakota for the quiet atmosphere, for some semblance of safety for their daughters. Andie's nightmares were already a source of worry for him, but with a new threat up north just miles away—he didn't need another source of stress.

Annabeth smoothes a line between his eyes and kisses his cheek. "The Hunters will take care of it," she whispers. "We'll be fine."

* * *

**S**he finds him underneath some boards of Apollo's cabin. At first, she thinks he's dead, but then his hand twitches. _I have to find Nico_, she thinks, but then she remembers a knife flashing in the tunnel in Manhattan—and her resolve to find Nico weakens. _I can save him_, she thinks, staring at him._ Save him, then find Nico._

Before she can change her mind, she darts forward, pushing the light boards off his legs until he's free of any rubble. Ignoring the chaos around her, she kneels down with trembling hands, shaking his shoulder. "Wake up, Lee," she whispers as the screams slice the air. "Wake up, c'mon, I can't be the _only_ survivor here."

Lee groans and his green eyes flutter open, and a raindrop lands on his temple. Bianca looks up to see that the storm clouds have turned darker gray, and she can hear distant rumbles of thunder. A backpack from the Stolls' store is lying a few feet away, dirty and alone.

Bianca fetches the backpack and brings it back to Lee, weaving his arms through the straps. She can only pull him away from the boards before she collapses next to him, too weak to keep standing. The hellhound had managed to bite her calf before she stabbed it with an arrow, and the loss of blood is making her dizzy. _Just take a nap_, she thinks, _just for a short while_—

And then Lee is there, shaking her, whispering hoarsely. "C'mon, Bee, we can't stay here. We've got to move, right now. C'mon, up."

He pulls her up and they support each other, coughing through the smoke as they escape the camp. Corpses and thick yellow dust choke the ground as they stumble past. _What happened_, she wants to scream, _how could this happen_?

As they pass Thalia's tree, which has yellow needles strewn on the dead grass, Bianca sees Peleus fighting a drakon, and losing. _Oh, gods, we're under attack_, she thinks, not for the first time, and a part of her wants to break away from Lee and help Peleus. But Lee's grip on her arm tightens and he whispers, "Keep going!"

Before she can think about aiding Camp Half-Blood, they reach the crest of the hill and stumble down its side. Bianca's legs give out underneath her halfway and she takes him with her. They roll over each other down the slope until they slow to a stop and take a moment to reorient themselves.

Lee's temple is bleeding, but he doesn't seem to notice as he stares up at the sky and takes shallow breaths. Bianca watches the border dissolve and a listens to a hellhound—she can't tell if it's Mrs. O'Leary or not—howl from inside the camp.

And then she thinks—_Nico._

_I left him behind._

She pushes herself to her feet and staggers toward the hill, but she can't take three steps before she falls. Lee crawls toward her and whisper-shouts, "What are you _doing_?"

She dissolves into hysterics at his words and shakes her head, not trusting herself to speak. _I failed him_, she thinks, rocking back and forth, tears welling in her eyes. _I was supposed to protect him and I left him there to die_. She should be _fighting_ the monsters, not lying here with Lee. She almost tells him that, but Lee cuts her off with a gentle "You're bleeding, Bee"—when he presses his hand to her calf, pain swarms her vision in a blurry red haze and she passes out before she can see how his palm is coated scarlet.

* * *

**W**hen she wakes up, they're in a forest, it's night time, and Lee is sleeping on a bed of pine needles. He's also shirtless. _What?_

She sits up and collapses, because her side's on fire and _whoa_, when did the world start spinning? She waits for the world to stand still, taking a few shallow breaths before she can muster the courage to stare down at her body. She lifts up her shirt and sees orange fabric wrapped around her stomach, from her navel to her hips. More of Lee's T-shirt is wrapped around her calf. Half of the orange is stained red, and her stomach quivers a little at the sight of it. _Did the hellhound get me with its claws, too?_ she thinks, but the day is so blurry in her mind. The more she chases the memory, the more it retreats, until she just gives up.

When she tries to move, pain shoots through her, and she sits back on the pine needles, panting. Her hands roam the space beside her and one falls upon a plastic bag. When she lifts it to her face, she wants to cry when she sees ambrosia squares in it. _Twice now_, she thinks to herself._ That's twice_.

After eating the ambrosia, she manages to crawl over to him and place a hand on his bicep. Lee jerks, startling her enough to make her pull back. His eyes are squeezed shut, and he whimpers in his sleep. His face is glistening with cold sweat as he tosses and turns, but when she finally gets the courage to touch his arm again his eyes snap open and focus on her.

"Bee?" His voice is breathless and his eyes are like jewels in the moonlight.

"Bianca," she says, and he relaxes, closing his eyes again.

"You're okay. Good. I was a little worried there." His eyes open and shine in the moonlight. "What happened?"

"We were attacked."

"By who?"

She shrugs and lies down next to him. Her silence is all the answer he needs. He asks her what they should do next, and she shrugs to that as well. At last, he tells the rustling forest, "I heard the Hunters were in the area. Let's find them."

"Okay," she replies, closing her eyes. They're silent for what seems like hours, and just as she's drifting off to sleep, she can swear she feels a feather-light pressure on the back of her head and hears Lee take in a breath, like—

"Are you smelling my hair?"

"Are you dreaming?" he scoffs, then turns on his side away from her and that's the end of that. After that, she can't fall asleep for the life of her. As she smiles in the dark, memories of smoke and death and pain wrack her mind. The bubbly feeling in her chest disappears, and she squeezes her eyes shut to block the memories.

_Not here, Bianca, not now, leave that for another time—let go, Bianca, let _go_—_

* * *

**A**ndie wakes abruptly from another nightmare to see a giant_ thing_—just like the dog from her dreams—emerge from the shadows of her room. Its eyes glow red as it bounds onto her bed and leans over, its nose drifting over her hair, her face, her neck. Andie stares at the ceiling, not moving, doing her best not to make any noise.

She shivers as its weight pins her down, clenching her jaw so hard she's afraid it'll break. The giant dog is snuffling all over her face, its paws resting heavy on her wrists and its claws poking holes through the bedspread.

When the dog turns away, she looks at the door and screams as loud as she can. The beast turns back to her with a snarl and presses its nose to hers, its red eyes boring holes through hers. She stares at it, but she can't stop screaming—and abruptly, as the thing rears its head, the door slams open and the lights flick on.

Her parents are standing in the doorway, both in their pajamas, and the dog turns around. A paw lands on her mouth and presses her head further into the pillow, and her father's eyes widen. He grabs the first thing he sees on Andie's dresser—a blue plastic hairbrush—and heaves it at the beast. Her mother disappears, and she can hear her footsteps thundering down the hall.

The dog takes one whiff of the air and snarls, jumping down and bristling at her father. Andie gasps, the return of air a blistering pain in her throat. "That's right, come after me," Dad says, backing out of the hall. The dog follows, and she, too, hears her father run down the hall and shout, "Annabeth!"

Andie gets up and runs into her parents's bedroom, slamming the door behind her and locking it. Just as she turns to the phone, she thinks, _Kat_, and turns back to the door.

Kat is already out in the hall, heading downstairs. "What is going on?" she yells, and Andie breaks into a sprint. _That dog's going to kill her_, she thinks as Kat stomps down the stairs—_I have to save her!_

Andie reaches her sister as Kat nears the bottom of the staircase, and both freeze at the sight they're seeing. Across the entryway, in the dining room, her mother is rifling through baskets on the china cabinet, and her father is using household items to distract the dog.

"Annabeth, I need it now!" he shouts, shoving the dog away with a dining chair. Kat screams and he looks over his shoulder to his daughters standing frozen on the staircase. The dog seizes its opportunity and darts around the chair, tackling him.

Andie's scream is involuntary as she sees her father stumble into the dining table and collapse, the dog snapping at his throat. Her father manages to defend himself with his arms, but her mother is frozen, staring over her shoulder at the scene with wide eyes. "Mom, do something!" Andie shouts, pushing in front of Kat, who's leaning against the banister and staring with wide eyes, too shocked to cry.

Mom's expression hardens, and she pulls something out of a basket. At first, Andie glimpses a pen, but then her mother pulls the cap off and swings the item—now a bronze color—at the dog. It cuts clean through the dog's middle, making it shudder and pull away from Dad.

The dog whines and turns toward Mom, but can't take a step before it collapses in on itself, becoming thick, powdery dust that litters the floor. For a moment, the only thing Andie can hear is her heartbeat thundering in her ears.

"Percy," her mother sobs, sinking to her knees and dropping the brown thing—a sword, Andie can see it, but why do her parents have a sword?—as she wraps her arms around him. Dad's arms are bleeding, but neither of them seem to care as Dad buries his face in her hair. After a moment, he looks up and extends a bleeding hand to them, and Andie and Kat are over to them in an instant.

The dining room floor has blood and yellow dust and pieces of broken furniture on it, and their group hug is a mix of blood and tears and sweat, but all Andie can care about is that her parents are okay. "You saved me," she tells them, and her mother smiles through her tears.

"Why was that mean dog here?" asks Kat, and her parents' smiles fall flat. Mom disentangles herself with a "I'll be back soon" and disappears. After a minute, she returns holding a bag full of little squares and a washcloth. Her father takes some and eats a square as her mother washes away the blood. To Andie's horrified amazement, the pink skin underneath the blood begins stitching together inch by inch.

"What are you?" she asks, and her parents exchange a look.

"Do you remember those stories we used to tell you two, about the children of the gods?" her mother asks, and she and Kat both nod. After a pause, her mother continues, "Well . . . they're true, and they're about us and our friends."

"That still doesn't explain why that mean dog was here," Kat presses. She doesn't seem shocked by the fact her parents aren't normal, but Andie is.

"Someone wanted to hurt your mother and me," says her father, and Kat gasps, but doesn't cry. "And they sent that mean dog to do it. Thanks to Andie, we're all okay." He smiles at Andie. The tightness in her chest is relieved a little, but she still can't speak.

"We'll protect you two," her mother adds. "The monsters won't come after you two, okay? We won't let anything happen to our family."

Andie can't go back to bed—and she thinks no one can—but she finally falls asleep at four o'clock after crying herself to sleep.

* * *

"**H**ey Bee, you're doing great," he says, green eyes laughing and gold hair shining. "You only missed the target ten times today—"

She lowers her bow and glares at the cocky son of Apollo, wondering why Artemis has allowed him to travel with the Hunters, with _her_, after Camp Half-Blood's destruction when there were so many other rebel groups wandering around the country.

But a memory of him jumping in front of a knife for her holds her tongue, and she manages a tight smile as she resumes her target practice on her tree. Lee watches her, she can feel his gaze hot on her shoulder blades like a flame, like a branding iron—

_I am not yours_, she thinks, and the arrow thrums as it embeds itself in the center of the carved target. She meets Lee's gaze, and his lazy grin widens until he's nearly beaming at her. Something warms her inside, and she wishes she'd taken Artemis's offer when she first met the goddess.

_But I had to take care of Nico_, a voice whispers, and she stares at the ground. Memories of Nico are too raw to be brought back to the surface, and all of a sudden she doesn't feel like target practice anymore.

She stalks over to the tree, picks up the strewn-about arrows, and walks away. A wolf lumbers to her side, its tongue hanging out, and she can't help but scratch him between the ears.

She doesn't look at Lee at all.

* * *

**D**ad starts showing her how to wield a knife, and he gives her a knife made out of bronze—"How is bronze going to help me?" she complains, but a stern gaze from him is all he needs for her to shut up—in case anything happens at school. Kat gets one, too, and she's smart and serious enough to know that their weapons aren't normal kitchen knives.

One day, Andie arrives from home to find her parents aren't home from work and Kat's bus isn't due for another ten minutes. She pours herself a glass of chocolate milk and puts the carton away. When she closes the fridge door and straightens, a stranger is leaning against the archway that connects the kitchen and the entry hall.

They stare at each other, and the man opens his mouth. But before he can get any words out, her brain kicks in and she grabs her knife. Andie unsheaths it with a yell and charges at him, swinging it wildly—exactly the way her parents told her not to do.

The man sidesteps her and she almost crashes into the chessboard from her grandmother Sally. She catches herself with one hand and spins, pointing the blade right at the man. "Whoa there," he says, his black eyes shining with a bit of dark amusement, "does your dad know you have a knife?"

"Does my dad know you're here?" she asks, now wary instead of frightened. He knows Dad, so he can't be bad, right? Not like that monster. And he does look vaguely familiar, so maybe he knows this guy—

"No," says the man. "I wanted to surprise him." He leans against the doorway and regards her with pursed lips. He's white as a ghost, but everything else is black—he's like a walking contradiction. All of a sudden it's hard to breathe for all the wrong reasons. "You look just like him, has anyone ever told you that? Well, except for the eyes. Those are definitely your mother's eyes."

His tone isn't nice when he talks about Mom, and she narrows her eyes. "My name's Andrea. I have a knife that can hurt you. You shouldn't be mean to my mom, okay?"

The man holds up his hands in surrender, though his smile is mocking. "All right, I'm sorry. Truce?"

"Who are you?" she asks, but before he can answer, the garage door creaks open, and they both freeze. A minute later, the door opens and her father shouts a hello. Not taking her eyes off the stranger, Andie shouts, "Dad? I'm in the kitchen."

Percy enters the kitchen and stops at the sight of the man. "Nico?" he asks, blinking. Nico's face shutters into grim amusement and he nods.

"Hi, Percy. Long time."

All Andie can think is _Nico Nico where have I heard that name before_?

And then her head is suddenly throbbing, the world is spinning, wait a second she can't breathe, she can't—_I thought you were dead_. Her ears pop and she drops the knife as she collapses against the wall—_I left you_. Her head hurts too much to concentrate—_I_ _need to remember_. Distantly, she hears her father getting worried, kneeling next to her as she slides down the wall onto the floor—_Bee wake up wake up wake_ _up_ now—

"Nico," she gasps, and she lifts her head in a dizzying rush to look at the startled man—_remember_—"you're not dead?"

Nico blinks at her and her father crushes her to him. "Andie, are you okay?" he demands, pulling away from her and staring at her with urgent green eyes. Andie nods and—so many memories—_Bee wake up wake up wake_ up—

"Bianca," she manages, and then her eyes roll into the back of her head and she collapses into her father's waiting arms.

* * *

**T**hey find another resistance group while with the Hunters, and then they find out who their true enemy is: Gaea. Gaea is, apparently, using the giants to avenge her son and regain control of the world.

The problem is none of the monsters they kill can die anymore. When the group tells them Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase are missing, probably dead, Bianca can't help but wonder hysterically if that means _she's_ the prophecy child now—

_No, of course not_, a voice whispers, _remember Manhattan?_ A knife glinting in the light and Lee throwing himself in front of her sears her memory and she chases that thought away.

Even so, at that news and the rumors of a group of monster-fighting demigods in Manhattan, Bianca and Lee decide to return to Manhattan to help these demigods until Percy Jackson shows up or Gaea wins.

As they get ready to leave, saying goodbye to the Hunters and the group, Bianca wonders when the demigod world became so dependent on Percy Jackson.


	2. Chapter 2

**[a/n]** two chapters in eleven days! I'm on a roll, yo. Also, the beta'ing job is still open. thanks for the reviews and alerts. hope you like this chapter as well. :)

* * *

**[2/6]: bleeding out**

* * *

_when everything is screaming _

_I'll reach inside just to find my heart is beating_

* * *

**T**hey reach Manhattan on her sixteenth birthday, and it seems like a normal day—nothing out of place. Of course, that means that something is going to go terribly, terribly wrong.

But as the day passes and Bianca and Lee try to root out this new resistance group, no one tries to attack them. Lee seems perfectly relaxed, and they even get some coffee and muffins. The lady takes the drachma without blinking, and Bianca almost feels bad for scamming her, but she takes one look at the muffins Lee just bought her and ignores her conscience in favor of her stomach.

The_ terribly, terribly wrong_ part . . . never comes. It almost makes Bianca suspicious, because half-bloods in this day and age never have what mortals would call "normal days."

She and Lee roam the streets of Brooklyn until her eyes are half-closed, and she nearly sways into him multiple times, struggling to keep her eyes open. At one point, she does bump into him, and he reaches out a hand to steady her. "And you said you wouldn't need coffee," he mocks, pulling away from her. "We need to find somewhere to sleep, huh? How about the Ritz?"

"No scamming people," she says and he rolls his eyes but agrees.

In the end, they end up sitting on a doorway to an abandoned warehouse. Bianca closes her eyes and leans against the doorway, but it's too cold and it makes her open her eyes. When she does, she's positive that there's a five-story enormous white mansion above them, but when she blinks again it's gone.

"I'll keep watch," says Lee, offering her a smirk. "Since I drank enough coffee to stay awake and all."

Bianca frowns at him and tries to get comfortable, but the wall is hard and unyielding and she ends up staying awake with him. Lee tells her stories of his life before the end—that's what they're calling it because, though the resistance groups will die before they say otherwise, that's what this _is_, the end—until she falls asleep. Her pillow is not the cold wall of the warehouse, but the bony shoulder of a teenage boy with golden waves and bright green eyes.

* * *

**A**ndie wakes up in a hospital bed, with her dad asleep in a chair and her mother nursing a cup of coffee, staring out the window. When she turns around and sees her daughter awake, there are bags under her eyes and shadows in her expression that have never been there before.

"Sweetie," she coos, sitting on the bedside and grabbing Andie's hand. "How are you feeling?"

Andie stares at her mother and swallows. "We thought you were dead," she whispers. "Why didn't you help us?"

Annabeth's eyes are dark, and her smile fades into a concerned (but _fake_) mask across her face. "What are you talking about, Andie?"

"Gaea," Andie mumbles, turning her face into the pillow. It's so warm, and the darkness is calling to her—but—_but_—"Is Lee here?"

She falls asleep before she can see her mother's expression. Annabeth sits up, her mask gone and a small _o_ of surprise replacing it. "I don't believe it," she whispers, as the last puzzle piece falls into place.

* * *

**A**nnabeth sits in the chair, silent and contemplating, until Percy wakes up. He yawns and rubs his stubble, then grabs Annabeth's hand and rubs her knuckles. "She'll wake up. She'll be okay. Apollo said so."

"She already woke up," Annabeth hears herself telling her husband, her voice almost foreign to her own ears.

Percy straightens, completely awake and heartbroken. "I missed it? She woke up and you didn't wake me up? Did she say anything? Why didn't you call the nurse—"

"Percy." Annabeth meets his eyes, and makes a funny noise—a half-sob, half-laugh—"Andie is Bianca di Angelo. She remembers everything."

* * *

**W**hen Bianca wakes up, she's in a pure white room, and Lee is with her. Everything is white, so white it's nearly blinding. Bianca closes her eyes and murmurs, "Where are we?"

"We're in the Brooklyn House. All our weapons are underneath your bed. If anyone asks, we're magicians," Lee whispers back. Bianca cracks open an eye and smiles, snuggling further into the bed. This place might be blinding, but it's warm, so she can't complain.

"What does that even mean?"

"Beats me. This girl—I don't remember her name but I'll point her out—she saw us and said that we were better late than never. No idea what that means, but I think this is the resistance group we were told about."

Bianca rests her hands behind her head and stares up at the ceiling. "Magicians is what they call themselves, huh? Quirky group name."

"Better than_ La Résistance_. Subtler."

Before she can reply, someone knocks on the door, and a young teenage girl with bright blue streaks in her hair strolls through the door like she owns the place. She's about two years younger than Bianca, fourteen to her sixteen, but her spunk takes up all the space in the room.

"Welcome to the Brooklyn House," she said, crossing her arms and gazing at them both. She has a mixed accent that Bianca can't place, though it sounds foreign. "I'm Sadie. Everyone's downstairs waiting to meet the new recruits."

Bianca sits up in bed and barely notices the pain in her abdomen. When she looks down at herself, she's out of her ratty T-shirt and jeans—instead, she's dressed in white linen pajamas. She looks up to glare at Lee but falters when she sees he's in the exact same type of clothes. "Who changed my clothes?"

"A _shabti_ did," says Sadie. "Not him."

"A what—?"

"You'll find out in the info session downstairs." Sadie grins at them and says, "I'll see you down there!" then walks out of the room.

Bianca swings her legs over the bed and says, "Was that the girl you were talking about?"

"Yep. Sassy, ain't she?"

They make their way downstairs, where a large group of people from teenage years to younger are waiting in a massive living room. A fireplace the size of a car parking spot is roaring, and a football game is on the too-big-to-be-real TV. Most of the kids are doing other things—she spots a pair playing chess, more watching the game, and a handful reading a book—but on their entrance, all eyes swivel toward them.

A young, slender African American boy—her age—is the first one to break the silence. He's one of the chess players, and he abandons his game to stand in front of Lee and her. He greets Bianca first with a handshake and a quiet but firm, "I'm Carter Kane. Welcome to Brooklyn House."

Butterflies erupt in her stomach at his touch. Bianca can't help but smile and reply in a voice that's slightly higher-pitched than normal. Carter holds her gaze for a few more seconds, then turns to Lee and welcomes him as well.

When Bianca turns her smile upon Lee, it stutters and fades at the scowl on his face.

* * *

**A**ndrea—Bianca—_Andie_ has been back at school for two weeks, and everyone's been treating her like she's glass. Everyone except David and Kat—David, because he's gentle and possibly too dumb to notice something's different about Andie. Kat, because she's witnessed Andie's breakdowns after the hospital firsthand and finds the whole thing fascinating for some scientific reason or another.

They walk home from school using the bike path that day, because Kat's in the mood to see the forest's beauty before winter strips it all away. Andie's in the mood to humor her, so they walk their bikes along the path as Kat openly admires the beauty of nature.

"I love nature," her sister says after a while, and Bianca thinks, _Gaea_—

Andie shuts that thought off right then and there, because Bianca's in _her _head, not the other way around. As she shuns the thought, her head begins pounding in time with her heartbeat, and she starts to tune out her sister.

_How did Percy and Annabeth survive? Does Hades know I'm alive again? How did Nico survive the attack on Camp Half-Blood? Where's Lee—_

She turns that thought off again when a biker passes them and then brakes, hopping off his bike to face them. Kat stops, ever considerate, but her green eyes are dark as she asks, "Are you okay?"

The biker smiles at Kat like she's a baby—she's not, leave her _alone_—and looks straight at Andie. "Bianca di Angelo," he says—his voice like is thunder and makes her headache worse. Andie's arms erupt in gooseflesh, but she can only tighten her grip on her bike handles.

"I'm sorry, I don't know who that is," she says, running her fingers through her hair, which is darker and longer but it curls nearly _exactly _how Bianca's did—

The man steps closer, and Kat darts away, but he pays her no mind. His voice deepens, and Andie swears his eyes are tinged red. "You escaped the Underworld, Bianca di Angelo," he says, and his flesh starts turning a mottled gray. Bianca recognizes the Fury underneath the Mist and Andie's knees almost give out. Fear makes her heart race and she sags against her bike, trying desperately to stay standing.

"We have not forgotten. We have not forgiven. You may have hidden, but you cannot run forever. We are watching you, Bianca di Angelo, traitor to the house of Hades. Turn yourself in, or your life will suffer for it—"

Before the biker can finish, a knife point sprouts from its stomach. The man makes a horrible, keening noise—the noise a monster makes when it dies, Andie knows instinctively—and folds in on himself, disintegrating into dust. She watches the pile of dust grow, waiting for it to re-emerge as a stronger and angrier Fury, but it stays where it is.

Then, slowly, she raises her eyes to stare at Kat, little ten-year-old Kat, who's pale but otherwise unshaken, except when her green eyes meet hers. "Are you okay?" her sister asks, lowering her knife and looking close to tears.

Andie nods, surprised when her legs wobble when she tries to take a step toward her sister and she collapses on the ground. "We should tell Mom and Dad about this," Kat says, fishing Andie's phone out of her sister's backpack. "Just . . . stay down, Andie. Everything's going to be okay."

They wait with their bikes until Annabeth comes, her gray eyes snappish and taking everything at the scene in. Her first move is to give her girls a hug, but something makes Andie step away. Annabeth's flinch is barely visible as she turns to Kat smoothly and bundles her up in her arms, praising her quick thinking and saying things like _I'm so proud of you_ and _good job looking out for your sister_.

"I can take care of myself, Annabeth," Andie hears herself say, but it's not _her_, it's—_shut up!_

Annabeth's eyes flicker to hers, and she stands up, grabbing Andie's bike handles. Kat does the same to her own bike and the Jacksons walk back to where Annabeth's car is parked. Kat stays with her mother, but as time passes she shoots her sister curious glances and eventually slows and waits for Andie to catch up with her. Annabeth can sense this, Andie can tell by the way her head's tilted_ just_ so, and she wants every word to be barbed—every word—_no, _stop_ it_.

"Why'd you call Mom that?" Kat asks, and Andie's hands clench impulsively, nails digging crescents into her palms.

Her tongue feels thick and dry in her mouth, and an emotion she can't quite place settles coldly in the pit of her stomach. "Do you remember the stories Annabeth and Percy told us, about the wars when they were kids?"

"Yeah." Annabeth's stiffened, but she hasn't slowed her pace and can still hear every word. Andie might not be ADHD, but Bianca is—_was_, she's dead—and knows her mother is paying attention to the road, the forest and the conversation behind her, all at once.

"Well, she's a liar. She didn't help the demigods fight Gaea at all."

Annabeth huffs, almost too quietly for Andie to hear—but not quietly enough. Annabeth's disbelief makes Bianca's anger, red and hot and _itching_ to throttle her, surge to the surface and tint Andie's vision scarlet. Andie clenches her teeth and shuts her eyes, rubbing her forehead and waiting for the urge to punch something to leave. The anger never subsides, but it does fade.

When it's to the point of being able to be ignored, Andie takes a deep breath and manages to grit out, "Percy ran away and she spent the whole war looking for him. They did_ nothing_." Andie can't keep the disgust out of her voice and she hates—_hates, hates, hates!_—herself for it.

On one hand, Annabeth is just Mom to her, the woman who shared hugs and laughs and stories at night. On the other, Annabeth is the coward who chose love over duty and survived the war because she secluded herself from society, abandoning it to its fate until she was sure she could emerge safe and unscathed.

Kat tugs at the blonde hair that's unraveled from her braid and frowns at her, deep in thought. "But if she hadn't been looking for Percy, we wouldn't exist."

Her words make Andie's eyes well up, and she crushes her sister to her, letting her bike fall to the ground. "You're right," Andie says, hating the memories that flicker through her mind. She hugs her sister tighter and pulls away, laughing as she picks up her bike. "Thank God, Kat, you're right."

* * *

**B**ianca wakes up in the Underworld and almost has a panic attack when she turns around and sees her father sitting on his throne, staring at her with pensive eyes. _It's a dream_, she tells herself, taking slow, deep breaths to calm her skittish heartbeat. _Just a dream._

When she's recovered, she drops to one knee and says, "My lord."

"Rise, Bianca."

She does, but avoids meeting his gaze. "Did you summon me here, my lord?"

"I did." Hades gets up in the corner of her eye and walks toward her until they are standing side-by-side. "I've been watching you these past few days, Bianca. Your use of weapons is intriguing."

"I like bows and arrows."

"Yes, it seems those hapless twins have influenced you greatly. Look at me, girl." When she raises her eyes to his, his black eyes send a shiver down her spine. "Artemis and her Hunters have you using an inadequate weapon, and that sun god's boy never leaves your side."

A blade glints in the orange light of a tunnel, and somehow Bianca's mouth goes dry. She tucks away the memory and manages, "Lee saved my life—"

He cuts her off with a wave of his hand. "The boy is like any other teenage boy, Bianca, I'm sure you'll see that soon enough. Come."

She trails after him, hating the blush that creeps up her neck at her father's dismissal of Lee. Her father leads her from the throne room and enters a hallway that's lit only by candlelight. After what seems like days of walking, he turns a corner and enters another throne-room-esque room. This room has no throne, but the walls are mounted with swords and daggers and quivers full of black arrows. An armory, then, in which the weapons were all Stygian iron.

"You will need weapons for the coming war," says Hades, and Bianca feels her insides twist in a way that makes her nauseous.

"Are you saying we aren't at war already?"

Hades scoffs. "The events happening now? Those are mere skirmishes, child. Gaea is still asleep, but look at what she can do. When she is even half-awake, she will be a thousand times more powerful. The gods will need everything they have to defeat her."

Bianca steps forward and picks up a quiver of Stygian arrows. "My lord, as honored as I am, I cannot see how these will be useful to me, since I'm dreaming this."

Hades quirks an eyebrow, and annoyance flickers across his face. "While that may be true, that doesn't mean these weapons are useless. Which ones do you want?"

Bianca takes a deep breath and stuffs a quiver with all the Stygian arrows it will hold, then grabs a dagger and a belt and lays them next to the arrows. "This."

"As you say." He waves a hand, and she drops her eyes to the floor. "Your purpose is fulfilled."

As the edges in her vision turn gray and the color leeches from the room, Bianca can swear Hades whispers, "Good luck."

When she wakes up, her weapons are on the floor by the shattered window, and she looks at the sky to see a leathery thing flapping away. Carter and Lee run into the room minutes later, prepared to fight an intruder, but they see no one but Bianca, sitting on her bed and staring at the broken window.

When she assures them enough to get them to leave, she pulls the Stygian iron dagger out from underneath her bed and sits down, examining it with a coldly delighted smile.

* * *

**P**ercy finds her packing a rucksack after school. "Going camping?" he teases, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorway. Andie fights off a shudder and avoids looking at him. Half her mind whispers _coward_ and the other half screams _dad_. The worst thing is she doesn't know which half to side with.

"I'm going north. With the Hunters."

"Are you, now?"

Andie raises her head and stares at him. "Yes, I am."

A half-smile is playing around the edges of Percy's lips, but his eyes contain a speck of fear he can't smother. "And what makes you think your mother and I are going to allow that?"

"These monsters are here because of me, not you or Annabeth," says Andie, folding a shirt and shoving it inside her backpack. "I escaped the Underworld when Gaea opened the Doors of Death, and I never bathed in the Lethe. Hades wants me back, and he's putting your family in danger because of me."

"While that may be true, you're missing one giant piece of the puzzle, Andie," says Percy, pushing from the door and sitting on her bed next to her backpack. "You're part of my family, too."

"Think of Kat, Percy," snaps Andie, avoiding his gaze. "Think of all the danger she's been put through, and she's only ten."

"And you've been put through the same amount of danger, and you're only twelve," Percy counters. Andie blinks up at him, suddenly furious.

"Now you listen, Perseus Jackson. I'm the daughter of Hades and I have sixteen years of experience protecting myself and killing monsters and fighting in two wars, during one of which you _ran away_ to settle down with Annabeth. Kat is an innocent ten-year-old girl with no former memories to help her out when she's in danger, and I love her with all my heart. I loved you, too, and Annabeth, back when I was Andie—"

"Question," interrupts Percy, his half-smile gone. "Are you still Andie?"

Andie stops short and swallows, tears pricking her eyes._ Gods, don't cry, not in front of him_. "I don't know anymore," she whispers.

Percy places a hand on her shoulder and turns her around. "Who do you see?"

Andie blinks at her reflection and studies the mirror. A scrawny girl with a multitude of freckles stares back at her, her black hair haphazardly pulled back into a messy ponytail with several strands hanging loose and curling at the end. But the main thing that attracts her attention is the stormy gray eyes—the eyes she shares with Annabeth Chase and with Athena.

Andie darts to her desk and grabs her pair of scissors. Percy's eyes widen, but before he can say anything, she's returned to the mirror and grabbed her ponytail, pulling it taut. "Andie, I don't think—" he starts, and then she cuts off her hair with a quiet _snip_.

She sets the scissors down and stares at her reflection as her hair tumbles like a curtain. "I don't look like her anymore," she whispers to Percy, who can't do anything but stare at his daughter.

At last, he offers a goofy grin, the same grin he'd give her when Annabeth caught them eating before dinner. Andie's memory hits her so hard she bursts into tears and throws her arms around her father.

"I love you, Dad," she whispers, holding him closer. Percy laughs into her hair and pulls away, chucking her chin.

"I love you too, Andie. What do you say we go get a haircut?"

Andie dumps her clothes on her bed and looks up pixie cuts for the hairdresser on the computer. That night, when they come home to find Annabeth and Kat waiting for them, both of them are speechless when they see Andie's hair barely brushes the back of her head.

"But—you were so pretty with long hair!" Kat says, and then she colors and adds, "Not that you're _not_ pretty now, but…"

Annabeth doesn't say anything, but her gray eyes are warm as she says, "Just felt like a change, huh?"

Andie rubs her reddened eyes and braves a smile. _She understands._ "I love you, Mom," she says, hugging her. Annabeth strokes her hair and kisses the top of her head.

"You look like Tha—" Annabeth swallows her words and turns away. When she turns back around, her smile is bright and wide and _fake_. "Who's up for a story tonight?"

Kat squeals, but Andie immediately pulls away from Annabeth and frowns. Her mother meets her gaze and touches her shoulder as she says, "This one is one we've never told you two. Percy, are you up for telling the story of Camp Jupiter?"

Andie's never heard of Camp Jupiter, and neither has Bianca, but both her parents seem to have reached an agreement. Percy meets Andie's eyes and says, "Sure. Everyone, sit down and get comfortable, 'cause this one's a long one."

Annabeth and Percy sit on the couch and Kat and Andie sit in front of them. Kat is rapt and alert; Andie is wary and suspicious.

"Once upon a time, a boy with no memory was running away from some monsters who wouldn't die and really wanted to kill him. While he was running away from these monsters, he met a goddess who convinced him to carry her to an entrance to a summer camp for special kids like him."

"Camp Half-Blood!" gushes Kat. Percy shakes his head.

"No. This boy didn't know it at the time, but by taking the goddess to the summer camp, he'd just uncovered a secret location. A location for demigods, like Camp Half-Blood, but different. This summer camp was called Camp Jupiter, and it was where this boy met the Romans for the first time."


	3. Chapter 3

**[3/6]: troubled souls**

* * *

_I don't know where you're going but do_

_you have room for one more troubled soul_

* * *

_**S**__o, he wasn't running away after all_, thinks Andie as she's climbing into bed. Her hair is wet from her shower, and the room is freezing even though it's barely autumn. _That's why I have an Uncle Jason but not an Aunt Thalia_—

At the thought of Thalia, a lump forms in her throat, and she can't swallow it down. She cuts off her train of thought and plops down, barely flinching at the pool of wetness on the pillow underneath her head. She rolls onto her side and stares at the glowing numbers of the alarm clock, then rolls onto the other side and shuts her eyes.

* * *

**B**rooklyn House shakes again and specks of the ceiling rain down harmlessly upon the group. Bianca fidgets on the couch, wishing she had a quiver of arrows. Sadie and Carter put on a movie for them to watch, but no one can focus on the movie while their friends' lives are at risk.

Who even puts on a movie before a battle, anyway?

Bast is there—Bast, the _actual_ Egyptian goddess, who knew they were real too?—but only to protect the neophyte magicians. Carter, Sadie and a guy named Walt are the only ones doing the fighting, and Bianca hates it because she's a daughter of Hades, she'd be way more useful out there than pent up watching _The Breakfast Club_—

Lee seems to know what her thoughts are—when did they become so attuned to each other?—and squeezes her hand before letting go and turning to stare out the darkened window. Carter has put some spell on it to make the windows black so the kids wouldn't see them—but Bianca can't see what was going on, either.

"We can help them," she finally tells Bast, who shakes her head and smiles sadly.

"You might think you're ready, kit, but your magic is untrained. You'd be more of a hindrance than a help."

Bianca leans deeper into the plush couch, unable to keep the scowl off her face, but when the light flicker and go out for a second, cutting off _The Breakfast Club_, she can't sit around any longer. She gets up and runs up the stairs. Bast hisses and Lee stands up, ready to go after her.

Bianca makes it to her room before Bast catches up to her, and she lunges for the Stygian dagger as Bast reaches for her arm. Her fingers close around the dagger's hilt as Bast's close around her arm, and she spins around until she is face-to-face with Bast, pointing the dagger in her face.

Bast hisses and jumps away on the bed, her hair nearly standing on end and her teeth looking far sharper than they had a minute ago. "That's not an Egyptian weapon," she snarls, eyes flashing. "Where did you get that?"

Bianca thinks of Carter outside, bleeding or hurt, and it is because of him that she lifts her chin and glares at the goddess full-on. "My father gave it to me," she says, approaching Bast. Bast lunges across the room, spitting and hissing and scaring Bianca silly, but she stands firm as she approaches the bed and gets to her knees.

Without looking at Bast, she grabs the quivers' straps from underneath the bed and pulls them out, then follows with the bows. Bast's eyes get wider with every weapon produced, and Bianca has to wonder how she never sensed the bronze or Stygian iron. A spell, probably.

"Carter and Sadie need help," she says, to Bast's silence. "And I can help them."

"Me, too." Lee is suddenly leaning against the doorframe, eyeing the two women like he's watching an action flick and is only waiting for the popcorn. "Bee, can I have my bow back?"

Bianca crosses the room to hand Lee his bow and quiver full of Celestial bronze arrows, all while keeping an eye on the Egyptian goddess, who has her hands on her knives. Bianca turns Lee around and pushes him away, then lunges for the door and pulls it shut as she twists and bounds down the stairs, Lee on her heels.

They go to the balcony, where Walt and Sadie are fighting side-by-side and Carter is against a horde of clay-shaped mini-humans. All are using Egyptian magic Bianca has never really understood. Bianca pushes past Lee and runs up to the guardrail, drawing an arrow and aiming it at a clay-shaped monster stumbling toward Carter's unprotected back.

When the arrow sprouts from the monster's neck, the monster stops dead in its tracks and lets out a screeching wail that has everyone, even the other subhumans, doing their best to stop the noise. After what seems several minutes, the cry tapers off and stops, and the creature stands still, not moving. When Lee's arrow sprouts from it, it crumbles into dust and doesn't regenerate.

All eyes swivel toward the archers, and the subhumans no longer have Egyptian targets. Sadie targets one and says something that sounds like _hadee_, and as it explodes she shouts to them: "That's the one time these haven't regenerated! Keep going!"

Bianca nods and aims for another subhuman, but before she can let her arrow fly Lee tackles her to the ground. She watches from the ground as the hellhound sails over the guardrail, where she had been standing a moment before, and crashes to the ground.

"Thanks," she whispers to Lee, who smiles crookedly.

"Got your back if you've got mine."

She nods, and they scramble up, only to see a mass of hellhounds emerging from the shadow of the trees. Sadie screams in frustration as another clay thing regenerates itself, and all three Egyptians are backed into the middle of a circle of enemies. At the same time, another army tries to reach the demigods and Brooklyn House.

Bianca exchanges a look with Lee, who says, "We need to help them. From the ground."

A knife flashes in her memories, and she closes her eyes as she nods. Then, before she can doubt herself, she shoulders her bow and raises herself up on the guardrail, swinging her legs around while Lee does the same. Sitting on the guardrail together, they clasp each other's wrists as they push off and plummet to the ground.

They land on a clay monster too stupid to get out of their way. It's soft and gets turned into mashed clay potato underneath their weight. Despite the buffer, when Bianca climbs to her feet and draws her bow, her legs are screaming and her vision swims.

The moment her feet touch the grass, she staggers and falls to her feet, gagging on the stench of rancid meat that overwhelms her. All at once, she can sense the dead buried underneath her, and as she closes her eyes and her mind clears she somehow _knows_ there are fifty people buried in this little square of grass.

Bianca, on her hands and knees, looks up, and sees a hellhound running toward her, its teeth bared in a feral snarl. In the distant corner of her mind, a woman with a soothing voice says, _This is where you die, daughter of Hades._

Bianca closes her eyes and curls her fingers in the grass and whispers _help us_.

For a moment, nothing happens. Lee screams her name as she opens her eyes to see the hellhound almost upon her, and from a distant corner of her vision she can see the Egyptians fighting furiously to get to her and Lee. Carter is the first one to break free, and he starts toward her at a sprint. Bianca's gaze flicks to Lee's, just once, but that is all it takes.

When the hellhound is three feet away from her and lifting a paw to swipe at her throat, a bony hand emerges from the ground and grabs its throat, squeezing tightly. The hellhound whines and moves away, struggling against the hand, but the grip is unrepentant. With a final whimper, the hellhound glares at her with baleful red eyes and crumbles into dust.

When the skeleton hand grasps at air, it lands on the ground and strains, revealing an elbow. The arm works together to pull the rest of the body—rotting flesh still clings to parts of bone, and Bianca can see a lock of long brown hair on the skull—to the ground.

As Bianca sees her first soldier emerge, countless other dead do the same thing. Some start by attacking the monsters directly, while others look to her for direction. Bianca's stock still, barely daring to breathe. "Don't—" she chokes down her fear, closes her eyes, and continues, "—don't hurt any human. Just the monsters."

The skeletons seem to understand, and attack the monsters with the vigor of someone finally able to have revenge, and enjoy it. Bianca forces her eyes open and watches with tears streaming down her face as the Egyptians and Lee avoid the skeletons and make their way to her. "Don't touch the black weapons," Lee warns the Egyptians and he drops to his knees next to her.

"We have to move," says Walt. "Bianca, can you walk?"

She hiccups in reply and clutches her weapons to her chest. "Take that as a no," he concludes. "Someone carry her?"

Lee is in front of her before anyone can move, and he tucks his hands underneath her knees and on her lower back as he lifts her up. "It's okay, Bee," he says, his voice shaken and whisper-soft. "We're all safe. We're okay. You're okay."

Bianca sobs harder as they take her inside, leaving the skeletons to drive away the army of Gaia alone. As they enter Brooklyn House, a woman's voice fills every cranny of her mind, her voice no longer soothing, but harsh and angry.

_Very well, daughter of Hades. _

_You will not be so lucky next time._

* * *

**A**ndie wakes up with a scream, clutching her neck, imagining a skeletal hand hanging off her throat. _Thank God,_ she thinks, staring at her hands as her heart thunders in her ears. _Oh, thank God_…

Her entire family bursts into the room a second later—all three of them wield some type of blade. Riptide is the only one that sheds light in the room, and Percy uses it as a weak flashlight to guide them through her room. "Andie, is everything all right?" asks her mother, and Andie finds herself unable to speak, so she nods. "What happened?"

"Nightmare. I dreamed about her." Andie closes her eyes and laughs bitterly. "I seem to be doing that more and more often."

Annabeth glances to her father and sister, then sends them both off to bed with quiet reassurances. When they're alone, Annabeth flicks on a lamp and sets her dagger down on her dresser, sitting next to her daughter. "If you ever want to talk," she begins, offering a smile, "I'm here. I have nightmares, too."

"About what?" scoffs Andie, rolling her eyes. "You and Percy were the perfect adventurers. You guys never had to—" She almost says _fight for your life_, but a memory of a knife flashing in a tunnel makes her stop so short she bites her tongue. _I forgot Manhattan_.

"Well, even if our struggles weren't monumental in the way Bianca's were," her mother says, in a tone that lets Andie know she means the exact opposite, "they were pretty scary. Your father and I both have nightmares about events, for example, that happened over twenty years ago."

"What are your nightmares about?"

Annabeth closes her eyes. "I could tell you a new one every day for the rest of my life, and I still wouldn't get through them all. I have a nightmares where someone—you, or Kat, or Dad—dies. Or I dream I'm being attacked. I dream I'm falling."

"Falling off a cliff? I have those too."

Annabeth smiles at her, and a deeper part of Andie is struck by how patient she seems. _There's something I'm missing_, she thinks, but holds herself back from probing her mother too much. "Yes, it is a cliff, of sorts."

Now Andie understands her mother's not talking about the regular falling, where you wake with a gasp and a few seconds later everything's okay. She bites her lip and stares at the wall, then reaches out to take her hand. "One day, I want you to tell me everything."

"Everything? That's a lot of knowledge," says Annabeth. Andie meets her mother's eyes and raises her eyebrows.

"Who's your mother, again?"

That makes her mother laugh, and soon she kisses her daughter's head and whispers good night. After she closes the door, Andie lays back down to stare at the ceiling—she wonders what secrets Annabeth Jackson harbors, and will always harbor.

"**S**o what you're telling me," says Carter, pacing the Great Library, "is that neither of you are actually magicians, nor do you have a drop of pharaoh blood in you."

"Yep," agrees Lee, his voice too cheerful to be real. He and Bianca are seated on a couch in the Great Library, and no one else but they, Carter, Bast, Sadie and Walt are present.

"But were that true, neither of you would've been able to get past the archway that leads to Brooklyn House. It's specially designed to keep people who don't notice magical things out."

"Unfortunately for you," drawls Lee, "we can see through the Mist, which is the real reason no mortals have stumbled upon this house yet."

Carter's eyes narrow at Lee. Then, he takes a deep breath and looks at Bianca instead, and she offers him a small smile. Unfortunately, Carter can't bring himself to smile back. "So you say. You were able to get past the magical barrier not because you were related to pharoahs, but because you were related to… gods?"

"Greeks," spits Bast, and looks away.

"The Olympians, to be more precise," says Lee. "I'm Apollo's son. She's…"

Bianca's cheeks flame as everyone stares at her, as if they already know. Surprisingly, it is Walt who speaks first. "You don't need to explain," he says, a little smile on his face. As he looks at her, his expression is the type that makes her feel like she's in on an inside joke. After a moment, he extends a hand. "I don't think I've properly introduced myself. I'm Walt Stone."

Of all of them, Bianca is the most confused, but she shakes his hand anyway. As her hand clasps his, she stiffens and tightens her grip, staring up at him. "No way," she whispers.

Their hands are the same temperature.

Everyone had always felt like they were on a body heat overload to her, but—until Walt Stone—Nico had been the only person with equal temperature to her. "Are you my half-brother?" she asks, and Walt laughs and shakes his head.

"No," he says, and this time his voice is different. It's softer, higher than the deep gravel of Walt, and it makes her let go of his hand. Walt bows with a flourish, and for a moment she swears he's replaced by a teenage boy with pale features and long black hair, and she almost has a heart attack.

"Nico?" she whispers, tears welling up in her eyes. _I can't believe it. No, I_—_I can't_—

Walt looks confused and says in that strange voice, "I'm sorry, but I don't know who that is. Walt hosts me—my name is Anubis. Pleased to meet you, daughter of Hades."

**A**ndie sees the wolf again, this time at recess. And what scares her most is that it ignores her, but stares at David. Everyone notices it as well, but they still mistake it for a deer, including David.

As the teachers usher the kids away from crowding the deer, the wolf stalks toward David, whose back is turned and no one seems to see how the wolf's lips curl away to reveal its yellowed teeth.

_Is he a demigod? Has the wolf been after him this whole time?_

The wolf, which is across the parking lot from David, breaks into a run, and everyone gasps in awe at the beauty of the deer. Andie pushes through the crowd and sprints in front of the wolf, unsheathing the dagger she has in her hoodie pocket and baring it at the wolf. Someone shouts, "Andie, what are you doing?"

The wolf comes to a stop and watches the knife warily, pacing around her, its gaze flicking to David, who was watching her instead of the creature as well as everyone, every so often. _Protect him_, a voice whispers inside her, and she darts between the crowd and the wolf, slashing to drive it back.

"Leave him alone," she says, not caring who hears her. "He's innocent, he hasn't done anything to you. Leave him _alone_!"

The wolf snarls, its tail bristling, and takes another step as she jabs at it—just like Percy (_Dad?_) taught her, back at Camp Half-Blood when she still had Nico (no, after the hellhound attack). As it feints to the left and she matches it, movement catches her eye.

She looks up, and a young girl—twelve, thirteen—with silver eyes and dark hair is standing in the shadow of a tree by the playground. Recognition makes her stiffen, and the goddess gives a piercing whistle that no one else can hear. The wolf yelps and bound away from her, to its mistress. With a stroke on its head, the goddess sends it to the woods lining the school's backyard and a neighborhood and watches her.

Andie doesn't break her gaze until an adult volunteer grabs her shoulder, wrenches the knife from her hands, and shrills, "To the principal's office right now, young lady!"

As she passes David, she meets his gaze, and a jolt goes through her when he looks at her with new recognition. Like she was someone he was only just now noticing.

Yet the only thing she can focus on is that she had a staring match with Artemis, and almost won.

The adult explains things to the principal while they call her mother, and she sits down and stares at her hands, a little giddy over her victory. The principal shuts his door and sits down, staring at the Celestial bronze with a bemused frown.

"Andrea," he says, and she winces at the unfamiliar name. "You are aware of St. Mary's ban on weapons of any kind, yes?"

"Yes, sir."

"And yet you still found it wise to have a Swiss Army knife on your person today? How long have you been carrying this?"

Andrea takes a few moments before she realizes he means her dagger. "A few weeks, sir."

"And when you do decide to use it, you use it to attack an innocent animal? Deer are rare in suburban areas, and I do believe you scared it out of its wits. They aren't known for making noise, but that thing was bleating with the strength of a bullhorn, so I'm told."

"It wasn't a normal deer," she mumbles, and the principal blinks.

"What on earth do you mean by that?"

"Well—" she pauses, then shrugs. "I'm pretty sure a regular deer would've run away immediately, instead of just taking a few steps backward every time I swung at it."

The principal clears his throat, clearly bewildered by her words. "Yes, well, we'll discuss this when your mother arrives."

Andie sucks in her cheeks and leans her head against the wall behind her. Ten minutes later, Annabeth rushes in, her hair still immaculately curled, but spots of color on her cheeks. "What's wrong?" she asks, heading straight for Andie and smoothing down her hair. "You're okay?"

She nods at the double meaning in her words. "Nothing happened to me," she says, and Annabeth visibly relaxes and squeezes her hand.

"Good." She turns to the principal and turns steely. "Then, Mr. Wulthorn, what on earth did you call me here for?"

Mr. Wulthorn gestures to the Celestial bronze knife, which Annabeth notes in silence. "Mrs. Jackson, St. Mary's has a strict intolerance of anything which can be construed as a weapon of any sort. Your daughter's Swiss Army knife is in direct violation of that."

Her mother sighs. "Mr. Wulthorn, our house was robbed a few weeks ago. Thankfully, we got home in time to scare the burglars off, but it still frightened the girls. We got them Swiss Army knives to let them feel safer. Surely, as a parent, you can understand this."

Mr. Wulthorn's gaze sharpens. "Katherine has one as well?"

"No. We don't allow our girls to bring them to school," Annabeth smoothly lies, and Andie bites the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. _I love you_, she thinks, as Mr. Wulthorn rubs his temples.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Jackson. But your daughter directly violated school policy, and apparently yours as well. She also attacked an innocent, bewildered animal, for no apparent reason. The volunteers who witnessed the event said she was shouting something about _his_ innocence, how the deer should leave _him_ alone. I don't know who this boy is, but Andrea was clearly willing to resort to aggravated violence for him."

Annabeth makes no move as he continues, "Because of this, I have decided to call a board meeting to discuss the matter. We will decide on her punishment tomorrow. I should let you know, Mrs. Jackson, that suspension is a very real possibility. Should Andrea be suspended, I will give her a written notice on Friday to bring home, as well e-mail you and Mr. Jackson. She will be subject to backpack searches for a month after her suspension—"

"Unlawful search and seizure," says Annabeth, her voice smooth and cool. Mr. Wulthorn smiles and holds up a hand before she can continue.

"_New Jersey versus TLO_," he counters. "I would have a reasonable suspicion that if your daughter has brought this weapon to school for weeks before this incident, she shall do so again."

Annabeth inclines her head, then says, "Do you think the board will decide on suspension?"

"I am fairly confident, yes. I just thought I should warn you."

"All right." Annabeth turns to her daughter and says, "Want to get a head start? Ice cream is starting to sound really good."

Andie jumps up and grabs her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder and wrapping an arm around Annabeth's back. Her mother puts her hand on Andie's other shoulder, making them almost like one person. As they walk out of the room, they both look over their shoulder to glare at the principal.

Mr. Wulthorn can barely suppress the shiver that goes down his back at the twin sets of storm clouds watching him, and he briefly wonders if he just made a terrible mistake.


End file.
